Want a one-way ticket to Mars?

Friday

May 10, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 10, 2013 at 10:28 AM

LOS ANGELES - Do you dream of living on Mars? Then turn on your webcam. You have an application video to make. Mars One, a Netherlands-based group that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a reality-television phenomenon, has started accepting applications for its astronaut-selection program.

LOS ANGELES — Do you dream of living on Mars? Then turn on your webcam. You have an application video to make.

Mars One, a Netherlands-based group that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a reality-television phenomenon, has started accepting applications for its astronaut-selection program.

More than 78,000 people from more than 120 countries have applied.

You don’t need experience in rocket science, astronomy or really anything to apply, but you will need to be at least 18 and have nerves of steel.

Mars doesn’t offer much in terms of human comforts: There’s no running water, you can’t breathe the air, the atmosphere won’t protect you from harmful radiation and the surface temperature fluctuates wildly. Also, the ticket that Mars One hopes to offer up is exclusively one way. Once you go, you won’t be coming back.

It costs $38 to submit an application to https://apply.mars-one.com/. You will be asked to answer questions, including why you want to go to Mars and how you feel about never returning to Earth. You also will be asked to describe your sense of humor.

The plan is to have 28 to 40 candidates selected by 2015. They will train in groups for about seven years and eventually — if the project lasts that long — an audience will vote on which group will go to Mars.

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